


Bells

by Merixcil



Series: Advent Fics 2017 [16]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M, intergalactic politics, references to Finn's awful upbringing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24664135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: Finn's still adapting to life outside the First Order and needs someone to talk him through a few things
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Series: Advent Fics 2017 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767640
Kudos: 6





	Bells

“What’s Life Day?”

Finn can tell from the immediate and total shock clouding Poe’s face that his ignorance is considered a massive social faux par. As if to hammer the point home, his boyfriend dives for the door switch on the tiny cabin they share on the _Falcon_ to be sure that no one else can hear him being stupid.

Poe leans hard on the closed door, staring Finn down with wild eyes. “Tell me you’re not serious.”

“I mean,” Finn starts. “I would be lying, but if that’s really what you wanna hear.”

“No, no. Of course not. Damn, I really hate the First Order.” Poe trails off into a series of short sharp laughs that don’t sound remotely humorous.

This keeps happening, normal stuff that members of the Resistance take for granted is alien to Finn and working out when to voice his confusion and when to keep quiet and ask in private has taken a lot of practice. When he first heard Poe and the rest of Black Team discussing the end of the New Republic as a bad thing he had learned in no uncertain terms that some political leanings were so far outside the Resistance manifesto as to be totally at odds with their values, and it had taken the best part of a week to convince any of them to talk to him again.

To be clear, Finn doesn’t think that the New Republic getting blown to kingdom come was a good thing, but at the time he had mostly just been sad that a whole lot of people had had to die. Life inside the First Order hadn’t exactly given him a favourable view of democratic government and he’s still working out the kinks in his ideologies, reminding himself that everyone has a right to choose their circumstance. This isn’t exactly the most common point of view in an organisation built on tearing down a would be autocracy but he’s making do. All the same, when he heard Rey urging Chewbacca to return to his home planet for something she called Life Day and the Wookie called a series of nonsensical grunts, he figured it best not to ask until he was in safe company.

Generally speaking, if Rey knows what’s going on politically, Finn is so far behind as to be rendered socially incompetent.

Not that he’s going to apologise for his ignorance. Finn keeps his expression neutral and holds out his hands in what he hopes is a friendly and nonthreatening gesture. “It’s a Wookie thing, right?”

“Yeah, it’s their biggest holiday.” Poe starts up in a hushed murmur, like he’s still scared people are going to hear them even as he prowls towards the bed Finn is sat on. “Celebration of life, family and harmony. They’re all supposed to go back to Kashyyyk for the day and pray to this big tree. They place a real heavy emphasis on the Wookie’s struggle back when they were enslaved by the Galactic Republic.”

“The Galactic Republic. Right.” Finn blinks.

Poe’s expression is pained. “They really didn’t teach you anything about the way the Galaxy works, did they?”

Finn shakes his head. “You know, we really don’t need to get into the details of how shitty my childhood was right now. Back to the Life Day thing; if it’s a Wookie holiday, why do you know about it?”

With cursory hesitation, Poe presses on. “Well, like I said, it focuses on the struggles of Wookies under the Galactic Empire, so it kinda gets appropriated by all Resistance types. According to Leia it was a big thing back in the Rebellion too. That whole ‘we won’t be crushed’ vibe really resonates with people. My folks used to do something for it each year back on Yavin Four. Mum had this little set of bells, real tiny, but she said that the stand they were on was made of Kashyyyk wood so we used to pray to that. No idea what happened to it.”

The First Order taught Finn that belief in a higher power was foolish, but he’s pretty sure he would have come to a similar conclusion all on his own. The Force doesn’t count. He can’t really fault the Jedi for forming a religious order around something that was so demonstrably real. Still. “We could get a set of bells.”

“The bells weren’t really the point, buddy.” Poe smiles, head cocked in obvious amusement.

“Or wood then, whatever.”

Poe pauses to think about it, hand reaching up to clap Finn hard on the shoulder and draw him in. “You know what? I think I like the bells more. That little tinkling sound always makes me think of my grandmother’s Life Day cake.”

“I’ll get you the tinkliest bells in the sector.” Finn beams at him. He’s already decided that together they’re going to have the best Life Day in the whole Resistance.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted as part of a multi chaptered 'advent fics' fic that I'm trying to split up. If you think you've read it before, you probably have


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